Chapter 36
Imake the rounds through the gang, suppressing a giggle at Josh trying to take a peek at Owen’s post-it as he writes it. Hennie’s mouth twists in concentration as she scribbles onto her post-it note, making me smile fondly at the sight. Despite my curiosity, I don’t ask to see it.
I find Elliot sitting at a desk around the corner, slowly spinning in an office chair. His yellow post-it sits alone on the centre of the desk, currently blank.
Even the walls inside this unit are crammed with post-its. I climb onto the desk next to him and cross one ankle over another, letting my legs swing to and fro.
‘Writer’s block?’ I ask.
He’s toying with a lock of hair on the side of his head, which makes me feel feral. ‘Something like that.’
‘Need some assistance from a deeply intelligent young woman?’
He looks doubtful. ‘As this exercise involves looking solely inward, I’m not sure if anyone could really assist.’
‘Well, maybe I could help you look inward? Like some kind of all-knowing sage,’ I offer as I lean towards him, the glow from the desk lamp illuminating my face.
‘And this ‘sage’ would extract my greatest dreams?’
‘Sure.’
‘That’s very generous,’ he says dully, spinning away from me before standing up and shoving his hands in his pockets. Stalling.
‘This is just a silly exercise,’ he grumbles. ‘I have everything I need. But it feels unlawful to – I don’t know – not do one.’ He gestures to the hundreds of notes surrounding us.
‘Come on, we talked about this. We’re talking about wants now, not needs. So…’ I nod down at his empty note. ‘What do you want?’
His eyes dance across my face for a moment before he clears his throat and looks back at the wall. ‘I don’t know.’
‘Alright, well I do.’
‘You know my deepest want and desire?’ he drawls, raising a brow.
‘Well, we did discuss it, if you can even recall.’
He goes still for a moment. ‘We did?’
‘Yes,’ I say patiently. ‘Your relationship with your brother moving forward is a priority. You want things to be better between you, right? You want to be more open with him? Repair things?
His expression falters. ‘Writing something like that on a post-it isn’t going to change anything, Nora.’
‘Wouldn’t hurt.’ I give him a warm smile. ‘Writing it down makes it feel more real, but I think that’s good. It feels like acknowledging it. It feels like… a start.’
His eyes are still flickering across the wall. I grab the pen from the desk and hold it out to him.
‘Commit to the bit, Walker.’
He huffs a breath and reaches for it with a reserved smile. ‘Fine.’
I grin as he scrawls his note onto his post-it, then quickly slams the pen down. His chosen desire doesn’t seem like it consists of many words. He approaches the wall before shooting me a glare and waving his arm toward the exit, ushering me away as I did to him.
‘Go away,’ he says mildly.
I scoff. ‘Why? I know what it says.’
‘Go away,’ he repeats, his expression increasingly stony.
‘Fine,’ I relent, hopping off the table with a toss of my hair. ‘Keep your secrets. Enjoy your quality time with your post-it.’
‘Thank you.’
I find the others crammed around a computer in the opposite unit, with Owen sitting in the office chair and Hennie lounging on the desk next to it. I jump up to sit next to her.
‘Relinquished your greatest want to the wall?’ I ask, nudging her shoulder with my own.
‘Absolutely,’ she says. ‘And you?’
‘Yeah, I did actually,’ I reply brightly, shooting her a wide smile. Trying to communicate something only she might understand. She studies my face for a moment before meeting my eyes again with a slow grin.
‘Good,’ she simply says, giving my hand a firm squeeze.
‘The question now is,’ Owen starts, spinning in his office chair. ‘Where’s the party in this place? It’s famously supposed to have one, but fucking where? It’s all just walls and office chairs. And there’s barely anyone here.’
‘Maybe the enigma that is Ransom will continue to elude us forevermore,’ I say with a shrug.
‘Don’t let Josh hear you say that,’ Owen warns. ‘He’ll become unhinged.’
‘Maybe it’s more of an art installation. Or a place to reflect, rather than being about music?’ Hennie offers.
‘Hard to reflect when I feel like I’m in an office. And a dark, depressing one, at that,’ Owen replies, sneering at our surroundings.
‘It definitely feels like a hard reset,’ I agree. ‘Like a preview of real life before Firecrest ends.’
‘Please.’ Owen makes a sound of distress. ‘I can’t deal with the idea of real life yet.’
Elliot and Josh soon arrive in tandem and all we move on.
Whether we’re looking for anything that relates to the treasure hunt or just anything of interest is now up in the air.
We continue to walk through the labyrinth of corridors and desks and shady corners, only walking past a handful of people in the process.
We turn into a larger space tucked into one of the corners of the warehouse. It consists of an undecorated bar and an enormous egg-shaped table with chairs surrounding it. It’s a clean and glossy white, giving the impression that it belongs in a sleek office rather than here.
‘I spy a lobster,’ Owen says under his breath.
He nods towards one end of the table, where a man with glossy blonde hair sits with his elbows on the table, his face lit up by his phone screen. My attention goes straight to his t-shirt, which has a large lobster emblazoned across the chest. My pulse stutters.
‘Seems a little easy, doesn’t it?’ I muse.
‘To be fair, this treasure hunt has been anything but easy,’ Elliot retorts.
‘Agreed.’ Hennie leads the way towards the man.
He sees us approach and sits up with a polite smile, quickly putting down his phone.
‘Hello!’ he says brightly. He looks remarkably… alert.
‘Hi, we’re, um – looking for the next clue in a treasure hunt. I don’t suppose you’re the right person to speak to?’ I ask, nodding at his t-shirt.
‘The clue led us straight to you,’ Owen says behind me.
‘Indeed!’ he says, his voice clear and crisp. ‘You’re correct. For formality’s sake, I’m afraid I must ask: where exactly did you find the clue that lead you here? We’ve had a couple of cheeky short-cutters, you know?’
Elliot and I exchange a look before he replies. ‘The phone box in Neptune’s Lounge.’
‘Excellent! Lovely stuff!’ He claps his hands together. ‘In that case, well done on getting this far. This is officially the last step before the winner is elected, so. Almost there, you know?’
My heart races. Victory is so close I can almost taste it.
He stands to take a step closer to us. ‘So. I’m sure you noticed that you’ve just walked past hundreds – if not thousands – of individuals’ desires expressed through the medium of messages on post-it notes. It’s the Ransom thing, you know. This year, anyway.’
We all nod, mystified.
‘Your last challenge is this,’ he says, enjoying this moment far too much. ‘If you can locate and bring me a post-it that perfectly encapsulates the meaning behind one Queen Ego song, the prize is yours.’
I blink. ‘That’s it?’
‘That’s it,’ he says with a self-satisfied smile.
‘Isn’t that a bit… disrespectful? Feels insensitive to just rip them off the wall and use them for something like this,’ Elliot asks.
He smiles patiently. ‘We’ll put them right back after and make sure they’re not harmed.’
I eagerly nod. ‘So, any Queen Ego song?’ I clarify.
‘That’s right.’
We are still for a beat. Then it’s like someone flips a switch and we all stagger around each other in the rush to get back to the main corridor in search of the perfect post-it.
I’m cautious of being too confident… but surely this task isn’t going to be difficult.
As long as I’m fast, this prize is as good as ours.
‘Why are so many of Queen Ego’s lyrics fucking nonsense?’ Hennie exclaims.
‘I don’t know anything about this band! I don’t know anything!’ Josh shrieks, running down the hall as his head whips frantically from post-it to post-it.
‘I think we’ll need your expertise here, princess,’ Elliot deadpans, staring after him.
Hennie’s muffled shout of, ‘Wait!’ from behind a wall gives me pause, and she appears to grab my hand and lead me down the corridor. ‘I’ve got one, I’ve got one! I swear I just saw it!’
We race around another corner where she comes to an abrupt stop.
‘Ah, this one!’ She plucks it off the wall and hands it to me with pride. Owen and Elliot look over my shoulder to read the message:
I want to fall out of love with her
‘Which song?’ Elliot asks.
‘It’s “Never Mind” to the absolute core,’ she says, looking affronted.
My lips twist. ‘Ah, “Never Mind” isn’t really a break up song though, babe. It’s about leaving a friendship in the past.’ I put the post-it note gently back on the wall.
‘It is?’ Elliot asks, just as Hennie exclaims, ‘What? Since when?’
‘Aga tweeted about it once. Said it riled her up that people assumed the song was about a romantic relationship,’ I say apologetically.
‘Wow.’ Hennie nods. ‘You really do know everything about this band. Bit scary, actually.’
‘Might be useless if my brain doesn’t start working,’ I say with frustration as I start to pace.
‘We’ve got this,’ Hennie says, moving in the opposite direction.
My eyes jump from post-it to post-it, barely absorbing a single word.
My attention is too scattered. I can’t concentrate.
My adrenaline is peaking and my brain power is dwindling because this is the moment.
This is the moment that this whole treasure hunt has been leading up to.
And the pressure is on for me to find the right post-it note.
Right now. Not only for me, but for Elliot’s brother.
The sound of rapid footsteps echo and rattle through the warehouse.
I force a deep breath out and focus on one post-it that sits at my eyeline.
I want to be famous
I clamp my eyes shut for a moment, already knowing that no Queen Ego song springs to mind. I open them again and read the one below it.
I want to lick Johnny’s chest !!!
Great. No.
I want my dad to come back
I want to sleep for a year straight
I want my baby to be okay
No, no, no.
Alright, maybe this is a more challenging task than I first imagined. Probably explains why there’s no winner yet.
In the back of my mind, a specific post-it note is screaming at me, reminding me of its existence. I try to ignore it. To trick myself into thinking I would never find it again in these never-ending halls.
I heave out another breath, my eyes still roaming the wall.
My mind is crashing so spectacularly that I can’t even think of a single Queen Ego song that pertains to romantic love, let alone songs that might summarise these specific wants.
All the knowledge I claim to know is turning in on itself.
I clench my fists tight. The footsteps echoing around me grow faster, louder.
Time is of the essence. I can’t waste any more. I turn on my heel and race up the corridor, heading to the right to find what I’m looking for.
My eyes snap to it with a sigh of relief and I snatch it off the wall, keeping it hidden in the palm of my hand. Without a sound, Elliot appears next to me.
‘Fuck!’ I leap back, my face flushing. ‘What are you, Batman?’
He looks me up and down, unperturbed. His eyes linger at my hand. ‘Did you find one?’
With hesitation, I nod.
His face lights up. ‘What is it?’ he asks, nodding at it.
‘No time, we should go.’
He matches my pace as I rush back down the corridor, calling out for the others to reassemble.
With the five of us back together, I march to our destination whilst temporarily dodging the boys’ enquiries of what the ‘winning’ post-it is. They’ll find out soon enough anyway, and I don’t want to waste any more time when we’re down to the wire.
Meanwhile, the post-it feels like a burning lump of coal in my fist. The red-hot truth that has come from a part of me that I haven’t even become well acquainted with yet. And now I have no choice but to expose it.